About Me

Welcome! I am passionate about excellence in early childhood education. I do a mainly Reggio inspired child-led/ teacher-facilitated/ play-based intensive preschool curriculum. Aspects of Montessori and other programs are sprinkled throughout as well. My graduates are all at the top of their classes and many are in gifted programs. I homeschooled my two boys for l3 years for academic reasons.
I have a master's degree in Human Resources (training and development,) and college courses in Early Childhood Education and Development, along with my 120 hour Child Development Associate training.
One of my clients has a doctorate in Early Childhood Education and Special Education, so I always have her expertise to tap into as well.
I welcome questions and comments.

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Friday, October 31, 2014

My pre-k students, ages 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 years old, do not nap, but the younger ones do. The pre-k's formerly went into the preschool room, but they have SOOOooooo lost privilege due to inappropriate conduct. So now, they are stuck doing quiet activities within my direct sight. I do not want this time to be wasted, and I need them engaged so that boredom doesn't nudge them towards more inappropriate behavior.These children are gifted and/or advanced for their age, so the classic preschool busy bags just won't cut it. I want busy bags that:

Hold a (fairly) unique activity

Work a specific skill set at multiple levels

Have more than one mode of play

or Be dynamic, each play being different

Are appealing visually and through play

Can be contained within about a 1 square foot area

Fit easily within a quart sized Ziploc

Do not require adult assistance beyond initial instruction

They have access to file folder games that use laminated manipulatives. I wanted the buys bags to be different.

So far, they LOVE them! They would play with them other parts of the day, but are only allowed to during nap time.

Each one works fine motor skills, so I did not list that under SKILLS. Most also work logic/reasoning, but...I'm kinda partial to that one.

Here's the ones we have so far and those pending. Each one is explained, in order, below.

Alligator Chomp

Build and Add

Butterfly Symmetry

Card Facts

Color Links

Fish and Chips

Frozen Flakes

Geo Board

Pumpkin Faces (seasonal)

Puzzle

Race to Odd & Even

Ribbon Weaving

Silly Sentences Punctuation

Sounds & Count

Stick Figures

Write the Facts

Tanagrams

In the works, I'll add to post when completed:

Animal Habitats

I Know Instruments

Food Group Gulp

Fraction Fun

Musical Notation

Types of Terrain

ALLIGATOR CHOMP

Includes: Craft foam alligator, numbers 2-10 playing cards

Instructions: Children children place 2 cards down and place the alligator greater than or less than to CHOMP the bigger number. Used cards are placed in a discard pile and new ones drawn. Advanced: use 2 cards added or subtracted for each side.

Notes: This may seem rather easy, but they like it, and it teaches a new skill. I have more advanced versions in mind for the future.Skills: Visual quantity identification, greater than/lesser than, 1-1 correspondence counting, logic/reasoning

BUILD and ADDIncludes: 11 each of 2 colors of unit blocks, laminated activity cards, dry erase markerInstructions: Follow instructions for building, add, write the sum in the box Advanced: write the number that comes before and the number that comes after on either side of the box.Notes: This was a free download that I can't find. If I do I'll add the link, but you can definitely see how it's done. This is a little easy for these children, but it's good practice for writing their numbers.Skills: 1-1 correspondence counting, logic/reasoning, word problems, writing, math vocabulary

BUTTERFLY SYMMETRY

Includes: 1 cream felt play mat, pattern cards, felt pattern piecesInstructions: Choose a card, place it in the middle of the felt mat, use the pattern pieces to mirror the design on the card.Notes: There is a free download for this activity, but I decided to make my own so I could change out the pieces or increase the complexity to keep it interesting.Skills: Symmetry, logic/reasoning, visual/spatial, observation, geometry

Includes: 1 set of color cards, 1 set of color linksInstructions: Choose a card, collect and button that link, choose another card, and add that link to the other one. Advanced: put the cards in alphabetical order prior to putting the links together.Notes: It may seem rather easy, but keeping the links going in the correct direction is more difficult than you'd think.Skills: Color words, color identification, logic/reasoning

FISH & CHIPS

Includes: 6 each of 3 colors of poker chips, pattern cardsInstructions: Choose a card, create that pattern, extend that pattern until you run out of chipsNotes: These go from the simple AB pattern to AABBCC. These kids are whizzes at this, but it's good reinforcement.Skills: Patterning, logic/reasoning

FROZEN FLAKES

Includes: 2 game boards, 1 die, 6 each of two colors of chipsInstructions: 1-2 player, roll the die and cover the number rolled, if the number is already covered, lose that turn. Advanced: use 2 die and you have create a double, add, or subtract.Notes: Yeah, not that challenging, but they love it, so it keeps them BUSY. For the younger ones we place the die in a small plastic container with a lid to keep it contained. Free download from Activity Mom.Skills: 1-1 correspondence counting, number vs. quantity, number identification, taking turns

GEO BOARD

Includes: 1 geo board, 2-3 of each size of rubber bandInstructions: Have funNotes: I purposefully placed just a couple of each size/color rubber bands into here. When they have access to a LOT of rubber bands, they just go nuts with them and start tossing them about. Fewer resources make them more precious, and the children have to work harder to create interesting designs. I was going to include cards for them to match, but right now they enjoy just creating their own designs. Cards may come later. There are a ton of them out there.Skills: geometry, grid manipulation, logic/reasoning, creative expression, architecture

PUMPKIN FACES (seasonal)Includes: Pumpkin face cards, pumpkin face mat, pumpkin face piecesInstructions: Pull a card and make a matching face. These range from easy to hard.Notes: Harder than it may look, as the pieces often need to be flipped and rotatedSkills: Logic/reasoning, geometry, visual/spatial, observation

PUZZLEIncludes: 1 puzzleInstructions: Put it togetherNotes: Changed out regularly, harder puzzles have a picture included, but all their harder puzzles are now missing pieces, thus the busy bags...Skills: logic/reasoning, visual/spatial

RACE TO ODD & EVEN

Includes: 1 play mat, odd and even number cardsInstructions: Choose a card, place it on the appropriate odd or even side. First side to be completed WINS! Advanced: Put the numbers in numerical order when done.Notes: They truly treat this as a race with one side winning. I can change the cards out frequently to keep it interesting and advancing. It is self-correcting. To hinge the two sides, I laminate them separately and use heavy duty packing tape on the back side of the seam.Skills: Odd/even, logic/reasoning, number recognition.

RIBBON WEAVING

Includes: 1 cream felt play mat, pattern cards, felt pattern piecesInstructions: Choose a card, place it in the middle of the felt mat, use the pattern pieces to mirror the design on the card. Advanced: Create rainbow order.Notes: A seemingly simple activity, but it works a lot of higher-thinking skillsSkills: creative expression, logic/reasoning, patterning, sensory stimulation

SILLY SENTENCES PUNCTUATION

Includes: 1 cream felt play mat, pattern cards, felt pattern piecesInstructions: Choose a card, place it in the middle of the felt mat, use the pattern pieces to mirror the design on the card. Advanced: Some sentences are questionable between an exclamation point and period, leaving it open to their reasoning.

Notes: I think they like this better because they helped create the silly sentences.

Skills: Reading, grammar, punctuation, logic/reasoning

SOUNDS & COUNT

Includes: 1 set of cards, red/green/blue clothespinsInstructions: Choose a card, place a green clothespin on the beginning sound, a red clothespin on the ending sound (if applicable), and a blue clothespin on the number of items in the picture Advanced: when I make these cards, I increase the difficulty by putting very similar sounds on the same card, making them work a little harder for it.Notes: We have sets of these cards for all our themes. The newer themes include beginning sound, ending sound and number. These are changed out monthly at minimum. It takes a good amount of clothes pins. This amount only does half of the cards, then they have to take them all off to do the other half. I just put a dot on these ones with sharpies, but they aren't hard to paint.Skills: Phonics/letter, 1-1 correspondence counting, number/quantity, logic/reasoning, observation, visual/spatial

STICK FIGURES

Includes: 2 each of 4 colors of craft sticks, design cardsInstructions: Choose a card, create the design, or create your own designNotes: The cards range in difficulty from fairly easy to very difficult. Even I find this one challenging if trying to get all the over/unders correct.Skills: Logic/reasoning, observation, visual/spatial, trial/error, patterns, geometry

TANAGRAMS

Includes: Set of uppercase tanagram cards, tanagram blocks to create all the cardsInstructions: Choose a card, re-create with tanagram blocks, or create your own design Advanced: make your own cards without the shape indicators, or just black/white.Notes: The tanagram cards are a free download. I printed them out with the multiple page option on my printer so that they were smaller. I wanted these children to create FROM the cards, not ON the cards. Since the blocks have a tendency to drift off, I put the quantities needed on the front of the bag for easy inventory and re-stocking. There are a lot of free tanagram cards out there.Skills: Geometry, visual/spatial, logic/reasoning, symmetry, counting, creative expression

WRITE THE FACTS

Includes: 1-12 bead circles, laminated addition/subtraction fact writing card, dry erase markerInstructions: Choose a bead circle, move some of the beads to each side, write the fact. Advanced: write all the facts in the family.Notes: The child can do as many or as few facts as they wish with a single circle before moving on to another. The circles are made with pipe cleaners cut in half and hot glued into the wooden bead after putting on the pony beads. I tried to make them colorful. The number is written on with sharpie.Skills: Fact families, addition/subtraction, observation, logic/reasoning

In there right now, I also have a number writing cheat card, since we haven't been working on writing for very long, and they want to write RIGHT.

I also have a couple of seasonal I Spy books in there.

Busy Bags are not ALL they do during naptime. They also read books, and magazines,

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

This is a one week curriculum that requires no additional components. I have file folder games and printables that we also utilize.

click to open

SONGS

Owl Song (I’m a Little Teapot)

I'm a great big owl, as you
can see
I live high up in a tree.
All the other birds wake me up when they play,
Because I like to sleep in the day!

Time
to Eat (Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Owl said, "It's time to eat, time to eat, time to eat!"
Owl said, "It's time to eat!
What do I eat tonight?"

Owl ate a mouse that night, mouse that night, mouse that night!
Owl ate a mouse that night
And said, "It tastes just right!"

Nocturnal Animals

On
a moonlit night when the stars come out
There are nocturnal animals all about

1. Whoo,
whoo, what do I see

(make circles with fingers, hold up to eyes)

A wise old
owl looking at me

2. Meow,
meow, what do I see

A big black cat is looking at me

3. Eee,
eee, eee, what do I see
A little bat just looking at me

4. Ribbit,
ribbit, what do I see
A big green tree frog looking at me

5. Squeak,
squeak, squeak, what do I see
A garden dormouse looking at me

Little Hoot Owl (Six Little Ducks)

Who flies around in the
dark of night?

Who glides o’er silent
night?

Who eats his dinner by late
moonlight?

It’s a little hoot owl with
his owl eyesight!

Who-who, who-who, little
hoot owl.

Who-who, who-who, little
hoot owl.

Who-who, who-who, little
hoot owl.

It’s a little hoot owl with
his owl eyesight.

LITTLE
OWL (Jingle Bells) Liz Ryerson

Little
owl, little owl
High up in the tree.
Little owl, little owl
Blinks his eyes at me.
Hooting loud, hooting soft,
Hooting all night long.
I just love that little owl
And love his hooting song.

FINGER
PLAYS & FLANNEL BOARDS

5 Little Owls By Lucia Kemp Henry

5 little owls on a dark,
dark night.

5 little owls are quite a
sight.

5 little owls! Are you
keeping score?

1 flies away and that
leaves 4.

4 little owls as happy as
can be;

1 flew away and that leaves
3.

3 little owls calling,
“Who, who, who”;

1 flies away and that
leaves 2.

2 little owls having lots
of fun;

1 flew away and that leaves
1.

1 little owl and we’re
almost done;

He flies away and that
leaves none.

[Can be flannel board]

Five Hoot Owls
counting flannel
Five hoot owls sitting in a tree
One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three, four.

Four
hoot owls… etc.

A Mouse for Supper

Five little
owls in the old elm tree

Fluffy and puffy as owls
could be,

Blinking and winking with
big round eyes

At the big round moon that
hung in the skies,

As I passed beneath, I
could hear one say,

“There’ll be mouse for
supper, there will today.”

Then all of them hooted
“Tu-whit, Tu-whoo!

Yes, mouse for supper, Hoo,
hoo, Hoo hoo!”

One Little Owl
by Elizabeth Scofield
One little owl when the moon was new,
Along came another owl, and that made two.
Two little owls perched high in the tree,
Along came another owl, and that made three.
Three little owls flew to the barn door,
Along came another owl, and that made four.
Four little owls lined up side by side,
Along came another owl, and that made five.
Five little owls hooted "Whoo, whoo, whoo,"
Then they all flapped their wings and away they flew.

DRAMATIC
PLAY/CREATIVE MOVEMENT

Wide Eye Owl

There's a wide eye owl

(make fingers in large circles and cup over eyes)
With a pointed nose

(use fingers to make a triangle & point out for nose)
2 pointed ears (use fingers for ears)
and claws for toes (wiggle fingers like toes)
he lives way up in the tree (point up to tree top)
and when he looks at you (point at kids)
he flaps his wings (use arms for wings, and flap)
and says whooo whooo (continue flapping wings)

The Owl [Finger play or dramatic movement]

An owl sat alone on the branch of a
tree,

(Use arm as tree branch and raise thumb for owl)
And she was as quiet as quiet could be.
'Twas night and her eyes were wide open like this;

(Circle
eyes with fingers and look around)
She looked all around, not a thing did she miss.
Some little birds perched on the branch of the tree,

(Fingers of
other hand fly onto tree branch)
And sat there as quiet as quiet could be.
The solemn old owl said "whoo-whoo-whoo,"
And up jumped the birds and away they flew.

(Wave hand away and flutter fingers behind back)

[For dramatic movement, children will jump up and
fly away]

Nocturnal/Diurnal Game

Children will be split into
groups of people and owls. When the lights go on, the people dance and the owls
sleep. When the lights go off, the owls fly and the people sleep.

One Night Owl – gross motor movements

(She’ll Be Coming Around
the Mountain)

There was one night
owl in the tree:Hoo! Hoo!There was one night owl in the tree:Hoo! Hoo!Oh, he called up to the sky to an owl flying by,And the owl came and joined him happily:Hoo! Hoo!

[Repeat for
additional numbers.]

[Can be flannel
board]

Pounce on the Mouse

The “owls” are barefooted. As they fly around, a
beanbag is tossed out and the “raptors” must grab it with their “talons” and
take it back to their nest.

Alternate, the beanbag mice are already in the “field” and the raptors must
swoop in and carry as many as possible back to their nest before they are all
gone.

If coordination is an issue, then younger children
can use their hands rather than their feet. Works logic/reasoning,
coordination/balance, core strength, spatial relations.

CRAFTS

Journal- Have children think about and draw about the night time outside.

Painting- Children will paint toilet paper tubes with brown paint, or a color
of their choice for Cut and Paste craft.

Owl Babies –
Children will rip a strip of craft paper approximately 1 ½ inch by 9 inch and
paste to black construction paper. Using black makers, they will create lines
and swirls on the craft paper to represent bark. Using pom poms attached to
clothes pins, they will pounce white paint above the “branch” to create a
large, medium and small owl shape. In the sky, they will use the same technique
to pounce a yellow moon. Using Q-tips, they will dot gold paint into the
background for stars. On the owls, they will attach 1” diameter white or yellow
circles for the eyes, ¾” black circles for the iris, and a hole punched white
dot as an accent. These elements can be pre-made or the children can trace and
cut out. An orange triangle is added for the beaks.

Sculpture- Turkey
Puppets – Children will trace and cut out their hand prints for the wings. The
wings are attached just below the top portion of the bag on the back side. 1 ½ inch
yellow or white circles are traced and cut for the eye, 1 inch black circles
for the iris, and white hole punches for accents. Orange triangles and zig zags
are cut out for the beak and feet. A cupcake liner is flattened and add to the
center of the bottom of the bag for the tummy. If wanted, Paisley figures can
be added to the top as feather tufts for a Great Horned or Long Eared owl.

Cooking- Children will create a sandwich and cut the sides off as triangles,
spreading the long ends out to form wings. 1 inch cheese rounds can be added as
eyes, beak and feet. To the center of the cheese eyes,an olive circle,
jam, ketchup, etc. can be added as an iris

.

ACTIVITIES

Measuring Owls-North America

Elf Owl 5
inches

Northern Pigmy
Owl 7 inches

Northern Saw
Whet Owl 8 inches

Western Screech
Owl 9 inches

Burrowing Owl
10 inches

Barn Owl 12
inches

Long Eared Owl
14 inches

Great Horned
Owl 20 inches

Snowy Owl 26
inches

Great Gray Owl
33 inches

How much light do we need
to see? Place children
in a dark place, either a room or a dark tent. If possible, have a dimming
light that you can adjust, or open the door or entryway a little at a time.
Have the children try to be the first to identify items that you brought in as
the light gradually increases.

Counting Feathers – The children will grab
up a handful of feathers and count them.

Sorting Feathers – The children will work
in teams of 2-3 to work out a method of sorting the feathers by color, type, or
size, then count each group